Incumbent Republican State Sen. Bob Rankin of Carbondale won the GOP nomination for the Colorado Senate District 8 seat over challenger Debra Irvine of Breckenridge. He will face off against Democratic challenger Karl Hanlon in November.

With 17,472 votes counted in the seven-county district as of 9:30 p.m., Rankin held a commanding 63% to 37% advantage over Irvine. The district includes Garfield, Rio Blanco, Moffat, Routt, Grand, Jackson and Summit counties.

In Routt County, Rankin earned 1,494 votes to Irvine’s 743.

---

---

Rankin said he looks forward to continuing his work on behalf of residents in his district.

“I just would like to thank the people who supported me,” he said. “This was a strange election, and I was not able to campaign as much because I was busy on the budget committee, and then the virus.

---

---

“I have unfinished business and want to get to work on the recovery of our state,” Rankin added. “We’re in crisis, and I think I can help small businesses recover and get back to work.”

Rankin was the former three-term state representative for House District 57, including his home county of Garfield, plus Rio Blanco and Moffat counties, from 2013 through 2018.

He was appointed to the vacant District 8 Senate seat in January 2019 after he had just been elected to a fourth term in the House, replacing former Republican Sen. Randy Baumgardner, who resigned. This will be Rankin’s first run for the Senate seat.

Irvine was a 2014 Republican candidate for the District 61 Colorado House of Representatives seat. She ran unsuccessfully for the same seat in 2012.